Blizzard has nerfed even more dungeons in World of Warcraft. This time, however, these are passive changes – as the numbers have not been altered.
The endgame in World of Warcraft for many consists of “Mythic+”, which means the toughest dungeons. These become increasingly challenging at high levels and can push even coordinated groups to the brink of despair. In the past, Blizzard has made numerous nerfs and adjustments, but in recent days there have been further weakening without having to tweak the numbers. Instead, Blizzard has adjusted the visual effects.
What is Blizzard changing? In recent days, Blizzard has adjusted several “problematic” visual effects in the older WoW dungeons that are being gradually discovered by the community.
- Hyrja in the Halls of Valor has received a new spell animation for “Holy” (Sanctify). Instead of shooting wavy projectiles, these are now golden orbs.
- Advisor Melandrus in the Court of Stars has received new ground effects for “Piercing Gale”. The lines are now clearly distinguishable from the ground.
Why is Blizzard doing this? Some may argue that the effects looked the same back during “Legion” and players had to dodge them then as well. This is, of course, true to some extent, but the “Mythic+” system has evolved significantly since then. Not only are there tougher timers and greater challenges, but also many new affixes.
Especially “Thunderous” generates numerous visual effects. The sky darkens, lightning strikes everywhere, and all players are also affected with effects that flash above their characters. Especially in combination with other affixes, such as “Stormy”, it is hardly possible to keep track of all the effects.
This makes some boss mechanics deadlier. Especially with Hyrja, it was often difficult to see how large the “hitbox” of the golden projectiles actually is, as the effect of the projectile changes during its flight path. The new orb effect does not have this drawback – it is always clearly recognizable how large a projectile is and it stands out distinctly from other effects in the dungeon.
The changes fundamentally also align with a philosophy that Blizzard has been pursuing since Shadowlands. Effects, especially those from bosses, should be clear and distinguishable from the rest of the “effect storm”. Therefore, it is only logical that the developers make some improvements in older dungeons when these dungeons are reused in the current content (Mythic+).
What do you think of this kind of “nerfs”? Does it make the dungeons too easy? Or is more visual clarity not a real nerf and simply an improvement?
